'Here you have TWO rights, TWO people who are right in terms of ancestral claims.'

from an interview with
Nadine Gordimer
a Jewish South African writer, political activist and Nobel Prize in literature laureate.
Her writing has long dealt with moral and racial issues, particularly apartheid in South Africa. She was active in the anti-apartheid movement, joining the African National Congress during the days when it was banned as a terrorist organization

'But all the differences aside, it appears that the strongest similarity Gordimer sees between apartheid and the struggle between Israelis and Palestinians is what she calls "Israel's brutal methods in the occupied territories."

"There is a similarity, alas, in the way Palestinians are being treated in the occupied territories, the brutal methods." '

Gordimer said she was "shocked and saddened by the behaviour of Israel in the occupied territories," asserting that Israel is "much stronger" than the Palestinians, and should therefore "restrain itself."

Though Israelis might feel their country is fighting for a just cause, Gordimer says they should feel something quite different.

"I think Israelis should feel very troubled, and indeed some Israelis feel troubled, with the brutality and lack of common humanity shown to people in the occupied territories"'

The thread is about the 'facts' and MUST include the acknowledgement of the privations of everyday life behind the 'Seperation Wall' and the work that civil rights activists and peace makers, whether Jewish, Israeli, Arab or others are doing to bring this to the attention of the world.


Please read the report of the Caritas charitable organization working with the children behind the 'Seperation Wall' these are the 'facts' of everyday life

'..... Endless paperwork must be completed and then the child will be put into an ambulance. but this ambulance is permitted to travel only a few hundred metres up to Bethlehem checkpoint. It can go no further. It can go no further because it is Palestinian. Even ambulances are not allowed passage through the checkpoints to hospitals in Israel irrespective of paperwork.'

And once the child is safely in the hospital inside Israel where are his or her parents? They are invariably stuck the other side of the Apartheid Wall to their child, unable to get permission from the Occupation to themselves visit and care for their sick children during their hospital treatment.'

'Palestine diminishes day by day. It gets smaller and smaller. It cannot thrive and its children suffer from a Failure to Thrive. It cannot develop, and its children illustrate that fact through their continued development of poverty related illnesses.'

extracts from

Behind the Wall - 'Medical Conditions caused by Political Decisions'
Window Into Palestine
Rich Wiles